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Ruhleben Football Association

A few days ago, I commented on The English Game thread, about a book I had recently purchased called The Ruhleben Football Association. The book is a true story about British prisoners of war, taken prisoner during The Great War (World War One) and interned in a brutal prison camp at Ruhleben, located about 8 miles west of Berlin.

I first read about the book in an article in the red Echo, who gave a brief description about the book, as it included four former Everton players. Obviously, my first thought was that it was about British soldiers taken prisoner during combat and sent to Ruhleben, who then set up their own league. I also thought that, as with many professional footballers during WW1 and WW2, the former Everton players had joined up to fight in The Great War alongside the regular army, and been captured, and sent to a POW camp.

However, this was a POW camp with a difference. The camp held over 4,500 prisoners, yet not one was a British soldier. There were also prisoners from other countries within the British Empire, including the likes of Australia, New Zealand, Canada and India. At the outbreak of The Great War, there were many British civvies working in Germany (along with those from the countries named above) which included the four former Everton players John Brearley, John Cameron, Walter Campbell, and Sam Wolstenholme. There were four other former professional footballers, Edwin Dutton, Percy Hartley, Fred Pentland, and probably the most famous of them all, Steve Bloomer. There were also several amateur and semi-professional players incarcerated in the camp.

However, as I said, they were POW's with a difference, because they were all working in Germany at the outbreak of the Great War. Six of the former professionals were coaches at German clubs in the Deutscher Fußball-Bund (DFB – the name of the football association in Germany long before the formation of the Bundesliga), while the other two, Edwin Dutton was a sports retailer, and Walter Campbell was a Marine engineer. Almost every other prisoner had their own business in Germany or worked for German companies.

Other prisoners had professions such as jockeys, professional golfers, music hall actors, university lecturers, pharmacists and seafaring men. There were men on holiday in Germany and even men on their honeymoon. There were even Germans who could not speak a word of English, but had English parents, and were born and raised in Germany. Basically, anyone British, or with British relatives, or even married to German girls, was captured and sent to Ruhleben, rather than being sent back home.

Conditions in the camp were treacherous with very little to do, so naturally with former professional footballers in the camp, kick-abouts were common, using tin cans, or sheets or sacks rolled up and tied to make a "football". Somehow, a proper football found its way into the camp, much to the delight of everyone in there.

Ruhleben was originally a "trotting track", a racetrack used for harness racing, where jockeys ride in a two-wheeled cart behind trotting horses. There was a big playing field within the track to mark out two full-size football pitches.

In March 1915, the POWs formed the Ruhleben Football Association (following permission being granted from Berlin), with a chairman, secretary, honorary president and two vice-presidents. Team names were determined by barrack numbers. So For example, the fixture list was simple, Barrack 1 v Barrack 2, and so on. There were enough POWs in each barrack (each barrack held between 300 - 400 prisoners) to form two teams, a first team and a reserve team, so there were two divisions, each with 14 teams in it. Squads for each barrack were determined by trials. Each barrack was captained by a former professional or amateur or semi-professional player.
Edwin Dutton, who was a sports retailer in Berlin, managed to supply equipment, including boots, footballs and kit. Players had to buy boots and socks, but the barracks had to raise funds to buy shirts and shorts. Goalposts were made in the camp by a carpenter incarcerated in the camp. All games were played in accordance with the English FA rules, the only difference being games were 30 minutes each way, and betting on games was strictly forbidden!

A cup competition was also introduced, along with international games, England POWs v Scotland POWs, England v Rest of the world (ROW), and so on.

The POWs did not think they would complete the first season of the Ruhleben FA, as they fully expected the Great War to only last a short time. Little did they know the majority of them would spend the entirety of the war in Ruhleben. As with any POW camp, many tried to escape, but very few succeeded. They were treated like any other POWs in any other POW camp. Armed guards patrolled barbed wire fences, they had roll calls at least twice a day, and were confined to their barracks early each evening.

The Ruhleben league lasted a total of four years. A fifth season had started, but with the announcement of the war ending in November 1918, the fifth season was scrapped. In the four seasons completed, Barrack 9 won the league three times, while Barrack 1 won the inaugural season.

The four former Everton players were:

1) John "Jack" Brearley. 1902-1903. 24 appearances, 8 goals. Was working as a coach for the Berlin Viktoria club when arrested.

2) John "Jack" Cameron. 1896-1898. 42 appearances, 12 goals. Was working as a coach for Dresdner SC in Dresden when arrested.

3) Walter "Wattie" Campbell. 1890-1891. 17 appearances, and won the league with Everton in 1891. Was working as a Marine Engineer when arrested.

4) Samuel "Sam" Wolstenholme. 1897-1904. 160 appearances. Was working as a coach for The North German football association in Hamburg when arrested.

Upon the war ending, Cameron and Wolstenholme continued coaching, but not in Germany. Cameron went to Ayr United in Scotland, while Wolstenholme went to Spain, coaching RS Gimnastica De Torrelavega for two seasons. Walter Campbell returned to the Merchant Navy as a Marine Engineer whilst its unknown whether John Brearley returned to coaching?

This was a really fascinating book which I've enjoyed reading. Obviously, I've only given a small overview of the book, should anyone be thinking of getting a copy. The book cost £10 and, as I say, a really enjoyable read.

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